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EC Archives are coming back!

Started by Saint_Doyle,

43 posts in this topic

Saint_Doyle

Saint_Doyle

Posted
Posted

:news: This news is exploding all over a couple other boards. :news:

 

Vault%252520vol%2525202.jpgHAUNTcoverGCPressLLC-1.jpg

 

"Tucked in the back of the upcoming September Previews Catalogue, you’ll see two entries:

 

SEP11 1116 EC ARCHIVES VAULT OF HORROR HC VOL 02

SEP11 1117 EC ARCHIVES HAUNT OF FEAR HC VOL 01

 

Both are scheduled for a November 2 release and will be priced at $49.95.

 

And according to Michael Kronenberg, who posted on the Marvel Masterworks Fansite boards, they will not be published by Gemstone. Instead the new publisher will be GC Press and all indication is that Kronenberg will continue to be Art Director, so the look and feel will continue on.

 

Kronenberg even went so far as to post, I can tell you that Steve Geppi is thankfully not involved with the “new” EC Archives. His financial irresponsibility lead directly to killing the EC Archives at Gemstone.

 

That’s certainly and indictment on Geppi who has been financial trouble the past few years and points directly to the overall problems at Gemstone.

 

More to come on this wonderful and developing breaking news."

 

 

Does this mean I might finally get to read the rest of Al Williams and Frank Frazetta's stories in Weird Science and Weird Science-Fantasy?

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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looking for weird science vol 4.....hope it comes out soon

 

Agreed. I like EC's horror and war titles alright, but the sci-fi titles are by far my favorite.

 

As an SF fan, that's my overall favourite EC volume. I have the b/w EC Library version, and the Wood and Williamson / Frazetta artwork is quite amazing. Great stories too, of course.

 

The colour Archive version was solicited just before the Gemstone reprint program was cancelled, which was quite infuriating.

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Saint_Doyle

Saint_Doyle

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How many books per volume?

 

5?

 

The Gemstone volumes contained 6 issues per volume, and I believe these new volumes are supposed to be nearly identical to those. Also, those pictures from the press announcement say "issues 7-12" and "issues 1-6," so unless something changes I would count on 6 issues per volume.

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Radj4ck

Radj4ck

Posted
Posted
How many books per volume?

 

5?

 

The Gemstone volumes contained 6 issues per volume, and I believe these new volumes are supposed to be nearly identical to those. Also, those pictures from the press announcement say "issues 7-12" and "issues 1-6," so unless something changes I would count on 6 issues per volume.

 

doh!

 

You're right, it says so on the cover!

 

I guess I'll be buying Haunt of Fear (thumbs u !

 

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Posted
How many books per volume?

 

5?

The Gemstone volumes contained 6 issues per volume, and I believe these new volumes are supposed to be nearly identical to those. Also, those pictures from the press announcement say "issues 7-12" and "issues 1-6," so unless something changes I would count on 6 issues per volume.

 

I've just taken it as being a basically identical format to the b/w EC Library volumes - 6 issues per, wherever possible.

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

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I'm glad that these are being resumed as I'd been buying some of the horror and SF titles. :whee:

 

There is a caveat though. hm

 

My one criticism of the Gemstone EC Archive series was the inconsistent quality of digital color enhancement. While most of the enhancements are generally true in spirit to the original Marie Severin color layouts, it's painfully obvious that the digital color artists who do those renderings are of varying skill.

 

Some of the color enhancements work exceedingly well while others appear sloppily done (in respect to highlighting, detail illumination and color gradation). The choices made by the color artists interpreting Marie Severin's original color cues should in each case respect the original artist's B&W line work.

 

I won't point out which digital artist(s) are the least competent, but one can assess for themselves the quality of each artists work on a story to story basis (in the prior Gemstone Press editions the names of each story's digital color artist was credited).

 

Undoubtably the style of the original EC artist's B&W line work plays a role in how well these enhanced digital color renderings come off. For instance, it's much easier to create an impressive enhanced color palette for artists like Feldstein and Kamen whose work has a somewhat less delicate style than artists like Ingels, Wood or Williamson. It's all the more reason that digital color artists should be carefully vetted for the artist's work that they will be enhancing.

 

The color rendering of some EC Archive art has been eye-poppingly good while some interpretations failed to do the original work justice. It shouldn't be brain surgery to get this right, but to use a medical analogy, where color manipulation is concerned the first rule of digital enhancement should be do no harm.

 

As the reintroduction of the EC Archive series goes forward my greatest hope is that future digital color work will be more tightly overseen so that none of the EC artists will have less than the best color rendering.

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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+1

 

You've made some great points here, particularly about the work of EC artists who included a lot of very fine line work / detail, something which certainly applies to my SF favourites, Wood, Williamson and Frazetta. Having poorly-considered recolouring obscure a lot of this fine detail is always a major concern for me as well, which is why I'm glad to own the material in the b/w, oversized EC Library format. Despite the inconsistencies in the EC Archive program, at least they haven't produced anything as atrocious, heavy-handed and disrespectful as Dark Horse's remastering of Bronze Age Conan comics. Far from it. :)

 

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